Chapter 142 The Darkest Three Hours

The continuous bombing by the Special Operations Brigade left the Japanese devils, who were experiencing their first air raid, completely at a loss.

Fortunately, even the longest night would pass, and even the most intense bombing would end.

Three hours later, the Special Operations Brigade finally ended its bombing of the Japanese 16th Division.

With the bombing over, the next thing for the Special Operations Brigade to do was to wait for the Japanese devils to arrive at Xingwan and continue their attack.

This was an operation they had already done once, and the three regiments were already familiar with the terrain.

Even so, while there was still time, the companies of the three regiments scouted everywhere in Xingwan to refamiliarize themselves with the terrain.

While the Special Operations Brigade was busy, the Japanese 16th Infantry Division, which had just left Xiezhuang, was even busier.

The past three hours were the darkest three hours since the 16th Division was formed.

In those three hours, its infantry, artillery, cavalry, engineers, supply corps, and medical corps were all hit in every way.

Especially its medical corps. The four field hospitals were originally following the action, and at the beginning of the bombing, these medical soldiers were actively rescuing the wounded.

Soon they realized something was wrong: as long as the bombing continued, the strafing from the air would not stop.

Their rescue was not only meaningless, but the wounded gathered together would only facilitate the bombing from the air.

More importantly, these medical soldiers also suffered heavy casualties in the rescue process, and soon there were few medical soldiers active on the battlefield.

Three hours later, the ground was covered with corpses and wounded, but there were few medical soldiers.

Most of the doctors in the four field hospitals were also killed or wounded.

Those Japanese devils lying on the ground were simply ignored. Some of the Japanese devils, still in shock, had already run out of Xiezhuang and hid inside and out.

Faced with such an attack, Commander Okamura Neji's plan to reach Luying Town in three days became somewhat rushed in terms of time.

This was because, during the air raid just now, the marching Japanese devils were like wasps whose nests had been blown up, running around everywhere.

They were simply unable to continue moving forward and needed to stop to gather the soldiers before they could march towards Luying Town.

The 16th Infantry Division no longer had any organized units. All the Japanese devils had been scattered.

Of course, the Japanese devils of the 5th Infantry Brigade trapped in Luying Town did not know about their situation here.

Brigade Commander Katayama Riichiro had now found a way to replenish food. With food in his belly, he was not flustered.

He simply ordered the Japanese devils in Luying Town to reinforce the fortifications every day.

For these Japanese devils of the 5th Brigade, there was no point in thinking about breaking through without heavy weapons in their hands.

Therefore, they could only build high walls and dig deep trenches.

By using high walls and deep trenches to prevent the outer National Revolutionary Army from attacking, these high walls and deep trenches, from another perspective, also restricted their obstacles to break through.

The officers and soldiers of the 59th Army were happy to see the Japanese devils busy, as long as they did not break through.

Anyway, these Japanese devils were all pigs surrounded in Luying Town, and they could be killed at any time.

Brigade Commander Kawamura Taro of the 19th Infantry Brigade was lucky enough to survive the three-hour bombing just now.

It had now retreated back to Xiezhuang, and at the same time issued an order for the entire brigade to retreat back to Xiezhuang to assemble.

It was not until after 2:00 p.m. that it received a battle report: In the morning's attack, the 19th Infantry Brigade suffered 3,213 wounded, 2,947 dead, and 1,364 missing.

A total of 7,524 Japanese devils were reduced. The two infantry regiments now had only the strength of two infantry battalions left.

This was a heavy blow that it could not bear at all.

Division Commander Fujie Keisuke was so shocked by the total number of casualties of the entire division that he could not speak for a long time. When this report was sent to Commander Okamura Neji, he was silent.

Did they still want to save the 2,000 Japanese devils in Luying Town?

More than 10,000 infantrymen were reduced in one morning. This was something he had never thought of.

In the past, such a record was the casualties of the National Revolutionary Army when the Empire attacked the National Revolutionary Army. When did the roles change?

For Lin Fan, the air raid on the Japanese devils departing from Xiezhuang was just an insurance: he felt that there were too many Japanese devils in this infantry division this time, and he just wanted to reduce their numbers a little to facilitate the next battle of the three regiments of the Special Operations Brigade in Xingwan.

Although Battalion Commander Zhu Qingmao reported that the air raid had achieved very good results, Lin Fan did not know the specific results, and Zhu Qingmao did not know either.

The Special Operations Brigade was still preparing around Xingwan, patiently waiting for the arrival of the Japanese infantry division.

The next day, the Japanese devils did not come!

On the third day, the Japanese devils still did not come!

The report from the Special Operations Brigade's fighter reconnaissance said that the Japanese infantry division had stopped in Xiezhuang, neither advancing nor retreating.

What happened to these Japanese devils?

Zhang Zizhong did not understand: Why didn't the Japanese devils come?

Did they not want to save the Japanese devils in Luying Town?

Save! The Japanese devils still wanted to save them! The 16th Infantry Division had been licking its wounds for the past two days.

Because of a serious shortage of medical soldiers, a batch of medical soldiers was urgently transferred from other divisions in Tanghe to help after the air raid the day before.

These medical soldiers arrived a little late, and hundreds of seriously wounded soldiers of the 16th Infantry Division died due to excessive blood loss and lack of timely surgery.

Those lucky Japanese devils who waited for the arrival of the medical soldiers still had to queue up for surgery and treatment.

This delayed the recovery speed of the entire division.

Brigade Commander Kawamura Taro did not want to set off, but its troops had only gathered less than a thousand Japanese devils in two days.

There were also some Japanese devils who were not on the death list or the wounded list. They just disappeared.

Kawamura Taro could understand that the Japanese devils ran away and did not dare to come back after being bombed on the first day.

It had been three days, and there were still some Japanese devils hiding in some unknown place and not returning to the team. This made Brigade Commander Kawamura Taro very angry.

His anger was justified: A brigade had only the strength of a battalion left, and the 11th Army Headquarters was still urging them to advance to Luying Town.

But with so few troops, it did not dare to move.

This was the first time it had smiled since the infantry retreated to Tanghe.

The far-sightedness of Division Commander Fujie Keisuke was not something that Regiment Commander Utada Tsubasa could see. Regiment Commander Utada Tsubasa, who received the order to attack, had already ridden out of Xiezhuang and headed straight for Xingwan.

Nakadai Isojiro reined in his horse on the road. This was the place where the air raid had taken place two days ago.

There were still large patches of blood on the ground, which had now turned black.

There was still a strong bloody smell in the air, which made people feel particularly uncomfortable.

It said to Inoue Hachiro beside it, "Inoue-kun! That day's encounter was really thrilling!"

Inoue Hachiro's expression changed when he heard it mention that day's events: "If it weren't for Nakadai-kun that day, I would have died.

Thank you, Nakadai-kun!"

"Hahaha! Don't worry about it. That day, I just gave your warhorse a whip to make it run faster." Nakadai Isojiro laughed happily.

When the air raid came, Inoue Hachiro was frightened by the sudden attack and stood there in a daze, not knowing what to do.

Nakadai Isojiro, who was running away, gave its warhorse a whip when it passed by, and also told it to follow.

Inoue Hachiro, who had no idea what to do, obediently followed behind Nakadai Isojiro.

The two Japanese devils desperately urged their warhorses to escape the main force and fled to a distance, thus avoiding the dense rain of bullets.

They escaped a disaster. This was Nakadai Isojiro's life-saving grace to Inoue Hachiro.

"You will follow me today!" Nakadai Isojiro was still satisfied with Inoue Hachiro's attitude and said loudly to it.